There are moments that are our everyday. They become so ordinary to us, such a part of our lives that we don’t even think about it. It’s those little moments of cuddles, getting ready for the day, and family dinners that seem like they don’t need to be documented because they are your normal. Those simple moments that you wish you could get a picture of, because you realize that those little moments don’t last forever. –TahJah Harmony, photographer
When I initially agreed to allow TahJah come to our home and photograph “everyday motherhood”, I was excited to see how her eye would capture the mundane routine we cling to. But as the day of our photo shoot got closer and closer I wondered what in our chaotic, messy, disorganized world she would be able to see as ‘beautiful” or worth capturing. I wondered if she would leave our home feeling like this photo shoot was a total bust or that I was a sham of a mother. We are constantly editing our lives via social media- only posting our most beautiful and victorious moments- and here I was welcoming a stranger in to photograph (and share!) whatever she wanted and I couldn’t control the outcome.
When TahJah arrived, I immediately felt her warmth and acceptance and my worries were starting to melt away. But within 2 minutes of her entering our home, Jo climbed over the back fence and took off running. Parenting moment of the year. We wrangled him back inside and started our routine of dinner, bath, bedtime. TahJah quietly melted into our sequence of events and her camera clicked away. Despite all my grand hopes for the evening, there were tears, there was applesauce thrown across the room, Jo stripped off all of his clothes, my husband and I had to eat dinner separately because Jo refused to sit at the table with us, there were time outs…it was a mess. But it was our everyday. I kept looking at TahJah and saying “This is everyday motherhood”. The chaos and the mundane is my everyday motherhood.
Hear what TahJah had to say about Mandy’s shoot and see more photos over on her blog.
Hiya, my name is TahJah Harmony and I am the whimsical creative behind Quaint+Whim. Where I specialize in fine art lifestyle photography. I have a huge heart to document family portraits and motherhood. I believe that every family has a unique story, and the best way to capture that story is through photographs. I have a strong passion to keep my photos authentic to your everyday so when you look back on your photographs you can remember 10 years from now like it was yesterday. Motherhood is something that means a lot to me even though I am not a mother, I was very fortunate to be an adult and watch my mom raise my baby brother (We are 19 years apart in age!). It gave me a whole new perspective on how to look at motherhood. Not from the eyes of being a mother, but from the eyes of being a daughter. I am so thankful for that gift.
